Mourinho has been touted as Ferguson's successor at United.
Mourinho has been touted as Ferguson's successor at United. Reuters

Ex-Chelsea and current Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has been touted as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United for a long time now. However, the recently retired United player Gary Neville believes that Fergie will remain in the job for quite a while yet.

Neville added that he respects Mourinho for his success in the game and that 'the special one' could manage United one day but not any time soon.

He told The Sun, There are many great managers and there's always speculation about who's going to take over from Sir Alex. I'm sure when the time does come, Mourinho is one of the candidates who will be mentioned because of the success he's had elsewhere.

He's a character. You have to respect people for what they do and he's very good at what he does. He's been successful wherever he's been. But it doesn't come into my head at this moment in time as Sir Alex is still going stronger than ever. It's a waste of time to start speculating who will take over from him.''

Mourinho, who led Chelsea to many trophies including the Premiership title in 2005 and 2006, has openly admitted that he desired to return to the Premier League, having left Chelsea in 2007. He definitely has the credentials to succeed Ferguson, which cannot be said of many other candidates for the job.